Archive for May, 2010

We aren’t sure why you would want to block all cell signals in your home. Maybe if you are a super villain or a spy this would come in handy. Maybe you just want people to stay off the phone and focus.

Anyway, this cell phone jammer is disguised to look like a generic painting of some boats. People will just think you buy crap art and they will stop visiting you because you live in a dead zone. It will cost you $150. Hey, art uglier than this costs a lot more.

Japan’s second biggest mobile company KDDI has unveiled the 10 cell phones of their new line-up for this summer. The first of these models will be arrive in Japan as early as the end of this month.

The majority are waterproof, which is becoming a trend for phones in Japan and they come in many assorted colors and styles. Looks like there’s something for everyone and every age. Hit up the link below for the full rundown.

We’re hearing more rumors about the upcoming iPhone 4G. The latest rumors say that the iPhone 4G will be getting a 960 x 640 pixel display. If the rumor is true, the device will not only get a higher resolution display, but will also a higher quality IPS (in-plane switching) panel along with FFS (fringe-field switching) technology to make it easier to read when outdoors. All of those changes would be welcome.

LG Display and Prime View International have been named as the suppliers for the new display. Apparently the panel will be a third thinner than previous models, which makes room for larger battery. Again, nice news if true. How about 512MB of RAM to double the iPhone 3GS and iPad?

I don’t know about you, but I find animal rugs with the head attached to be very disturbing decor. Unless it’s a Wampa of course. As you can see by the image above, it’s great for lounging around on a winter’s night by the fire, with your slave Leia.

The 62 x 30-inch rug is made of synthetic fur and has a non-slip backing. Only $100. Slave Leia not included. Sadly. Besides, that would be mixing movies. No respectable geek would mix an ESB creature with a ROJ Leia outfit. The rest of us don’t mind.

We had heard that Nintendo and the American Heart Association would be making an announcement today. Naturally we thought that it was regarding Nintendo’s Vitality Sensor. Turns out that it was about something else entirely. The AHA has announced that it’s giving its stamp of approval to the Wii.

Wii Fit Plus and Wii Sports Resort too. That’s a big first for a video game console and as ABC News points out, the association hasn’t seen fit to put its seal on other “active” things like baseball bats. It had a good reason to do so in this case, however, as the organization says it will be receiving $1.5 million from Nintendo over three years as a result of the partnership.

Dupont has announced that it has achieved record performance in printed OLED panels. The company worked with Dainippon Screen to develop a multi-nozzle printer for the new inks.

Using a special printer from Dainippon screen, DuPont can now print a 50 inch OLED-Television in under two minutes! If only we could get it in our hands that fast. We will be waiting for awhile to see this. Testing of the displays shows that the lifetime is about 15 years. Dupont says that the printer works perfectly.

When we heard about the Litl Webbook back in November of 2009, the thing sounded good but was too expensive in most books. The device was focused on simplicity for user looking to watch movies and video without having to mess with an OS.

The high price tag for netbook performance doomed the device and as of today, the Litl Webbook has received a significant price cut of $300. The new $399 price tag is where the device should have been to start with considering its capabilities.

Google started selling its Nexus One handset directly to customers back in January. The handset didn’t exactly sell like hot cakes or the iPhone. The reason was that many users simply wanted to get hands on the device before buying it.

ITProPortal has announced that Google has officially stopped selling the Nexus One via its website direct to customers. The publication reports that Google will instead focus on selling the device through retailers.

We have heard that the HP TouchSmart line would be getting new CPUs from the Intel Core 2010 line up a while back. Exactly when we would see the small notebooks get the CPU upgrade was unknown. If you have been waiting for one of these machines running a new Intel Core 2010, it has surfaced on Amazon.

The HP TouchSmart tm2-2050us has a 12.1-inch WXGA LED display. The graphics are powered by Intel integrated HD, which is a bit disappointing. The machine has an aluminum finish with a new riptide design in modern argento.

Samsung makes many different devices from computers and TVs to digital video and still cameras. The company has announced a new digital camera in Taiwan called the Blu EX1.

The camera claims to be the world’s first 24mm wide-angle camera with a brightness of F1.8 with a Schinder 3x optical zoom lens. The resolution of the camera is 10MP and it uses a 1/1.7″ CCD with integrated noise reduction.

Billionaire Tony Stark would totally wear these Iron Man cufflinks. And so can you if you want to show your geeky side. It looks like they were made from some small Iron Man figures since this arms and legs actually move.

In fact, the knees, feet, elbows, head, and hands all move and twist. I’m surprised they don’t fly off by themselves. If you want a set and are comfortable rocking them, the Iron Man cufflinks are available for $30 from the Cufflink Connection.

Swedish retailers to the rescue! Looks like some Swedish retailers have listed the Xbox 360 motion controller Project Natal for 1,499 SEK, which means $200 in US money. If this is accurate, it isn’t looking good for Natal. Most games already cost $60.

This is not the finalized price point yet since it could be a placeholder figure, but if it does turn out to be accurate, I know that I would rather spend my money on quality games that don’t use Natal.

This Resonance iPod Speaker Dock looks familiar. Like a familiar Apple product. It does do some unique tricks though. It uses resonance to transmit the sound from your iPod or iPhone through a hard surface like a wooden table, or marble floor.

There’s also an audio amplifier, but we’re skeptical about the audio quality that this device delivers. With it’s 3.5mm line-in jack, you can hook up non-Apple audio devices as well.

An FCC filing submitted by Nintendo and Mitsumi, appears to be for the new Nintendo 3DS handheld. It seems to suggest widescreen portable gaming. The image is likely a testbed for the Nintendo 3DS. The FCC report it showed up in is for its wi-fi system, but those two screens stand out.

The bottom one looks like the existing bottom screen on the Nintendo DS, but that top screen is widescreen. Keep in mind that this is all bound to change. What you see is used for testing. If that is a widescreen on top, then when the 3DS arrives, it will have a matching one below it.

Sprint was so excited about the BlackBerry Bold 9650 that it just couldn’t wait and so it went on sale online today, a week before the scheduled May 23rd launch. No word on if any stores have the device yet.

It will run you $199 on a two-year contract. It’s no EVO 4G, but if you are a devoted BB user than go ahead and order this one up. Now is the time.